Jean Killborne's book "Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel" uses the chapter Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt to open the conversation to the effects of the sex-fueled advertisements flooding the world today and how they affect us, even on a subconscious level. Killborne discusses how they are using women as figurines to glorify their products, dehumanizing women making them look more like an object for a man to use or posses. Several models have been asked to do riskier posses that are inspired from the vast amount of pornography available on the internet sometimes even the more risky material, Killborne puts it into perspective when she writes that "Pornography is more dangerously mainstream when its glorification of rape and violence shows up in mass media, in films and television shows, in comedy and music videos, and in advertising." Making pornography more present and visible in the world every day, exposing even the youngest of children to product endorsements where the only difference between their commercial and a pornography scene is the amount of clothes worn.... and possibly the lighting.
All of these stereotyping and role giving advertisements are leaving the innocent, unexposed children confused with a warped moral theory of how men should be treated and how women should be treated. All of the stereotypes and the discrimination of people exploited for the sake of a trivia objects sold along with all the suggestive, provocative, and clever advertisements; I don't want my children to learn a thing from these advertisers, but how could they not pick up bits and pieces from this world of social media. Women are continually depicted as weak, fragile things that are to be possessed by man. Sexy men are seen as dominant and dangerous, getting the women no matter if she says yes or no.
Killborne is worried about the effects these advertisements will have on children, girls more so then boys because of the violence associated towards women. Killborne has a good point to make when she says, " The most important difference is that there is no danger for most men whereas objectified women are always at risk," I do not disagree that women have seen far more abuse than their male counterpart because of being stereotyped as weak and for a man to use, but I do not think the effects advertisement has on girls is more so than the effect it has boys. I think the sexual role stereotypes of dominant males and submissive females is shown to all children at a very young age in today's world causing its own damage, but women are more at risk for physical abuse and mental abuse because they are thought weak by their male counterpart who believe they are dominant.
Media has in several ways become a moral compass to help guide children through their difficulties. Instead of a the child having to ask the parent to explain something, the child can see a television show on the issue. Leaving the child to learn the interpretation of the situation through the television which will contribute to the process of forming many of the stereotypes and judgments they will hold on to going into their future.
No comments:
Post a Comment